Indians heading global companies, that's not a novelty anymore. And yet there's intense interest in the men and women of Indian origin that corporations choose for top jobs.Satya Nadella, Ajay Banga, Indra Nooyi, Nikesh Arora, Anshu Jain, Vikram Pandit, Arun Sarin... all the way back to Bhaskar Menon. Indians heading global companies, that's not a novelty anymore. And yet there's intense interest in the men and women of Indian origin that corporations choose for top jobs. After all, these are people who have overcome all manner of obstacles—in terms of culture, background, accent, even education — through sheer dint of hard work, leadership and the ability to inspire colleagues. In business, as in most other pursuits, success at a global level is the gold standard of professional achievement. With the pioneers having broken down the barriers in the past few decades, an everincreasing number of Indian-origin executives have come to occupy key corporate positions. Some of them will go on to become the next generation of global business leaders. Here’s a ready reckoner — by no means comprehensive — of some of those at the apex and poised to rise further.

TECH/TELECOM

Technology workers from India aren’t exactly a rarity anywhere in the world, which means those who stand out are regarded as truly exceptional.

Gokul Rajaram, Product engineering lead, Square

Rajaram, 41, is clearly a wunderkind, even among the ranks of over-achievers. He has the kind of resume that would be the envy of anyone in the tech world, having worked in key roles at Google and Facebook before Square. He’s been called the 'Godfather of Adsense' thanks to his efforts at Google and is credited with leading Facebook's aggressive monetisation push. Square said it was hiring him in 2013 to "help revolutionize the world of commerce.” Not only that, “Gokul is also one of the friendliest, most humble and down-to-earth guys we know." He has a BTech from IIT Kanpur, an MS in computer science from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Apart from having been product management director of Adsense at Google, he was cofounder and CEO of Chai Labs, which was acquired by Facebook, where he became product director of ads. He’s also been a prolific investor and adviser to startups with at least 16 exits, including Freecharge. He has total industry experience of 18 years.

Pranav Mistry, Global vice president of research, Samsung Electronics

This is what people say about him: If you want to get an idea about the future, listen to Mistry. That’s why Samsung has hired this inventor and tech visionary, an expert in several fields including wearables, artificial intelligence and gestural computing. Mistry, 34, has a PhD and an MS in media arts and sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, besides a master’s in design from IITBombay. He’s also been head of the Think Tank Team, a group of inventors, at Samsung since May 2012. He was director of the India incubation team at Microsoft in 2005 and then moved to being a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, Google, Nasa, Unesco, Microsoft Research and MIT Media Lab.

Jai Mani, India product management lead, Xiaomi

“I decided to join in less than 30 seconds,” says Mani, of the time he took to respond to the offer by Xiaomi, the mobile phone maker that’s taken the market by storm through a combination of high specs and low prices. Now it’s putting in place an ecosystem to make sure that buyers stick with it. That’s where Mani, 28, comes in. “I took this job (last year) for three reasons: Xiaomi, India and Hugo.” Mani had earlier worked with Hugo Barra, vice president of global operations, at Google. Barra was vice president of Android product development at the company while Mani was in the Google Play unit.

AUTO

Ford and Tesla couldn’t be more different as automakers — one is more than a century old and steeped in tradition, the other is at the cutting edge. Both have Indians in the upper ranks.

Raj Nair Group, VP, global product development and CTO, Ford Motor

Nair is exactly the kind of executive Ford needs right now — a leader widely respected for his technical knowledge and one who understands multiple markets. “He's worked in Europe, North America and Asia so he has a very global mindset,” colleague Kumar Galhotra told ET last year. Nair, 50, is seen as being great at execution, delivering on Ford’s commitment to offer more new products faster than ever before by leveraging greater sharing and reuse of platforms and components globally. He has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering with an automotive specialty from Kettering University in Flint, Michigan, and won the 2012 Kettering Alumni Award for Management Achievement.

Kumar Galhotra Vice President, Ford Motor Co., and President, Lincoln

As a young man, Galhotra used to drive a Premier Padmini on the streets of Chandigarh. Now he's responsible for making Ford's Lincoln marque competitive with the German and Japanese luxury brands and trying to carve out a share of a market dominated by the likes of Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Lexus and Infiniti. In the US, the segment comprises 8% of the market but contributes 30% of profit. That’s why the home market along with China are critical for Ford's future and that's where Galhotra, 49, will need to focus his efforts.

Jay Vijayan CIO, Tesla Motors

Being chief information officer in an Elon Musk company isn’t a job for the fainthearted. It’s something Vijayan, 43, has been doing for the past three years. In fact, Musk promoted him to the top ranks barely four months after joining. Vijayan is credited with putting together Tesla’s internal information system, Warp, in record time. The science postgraduate from the University of Madras was previously at VMware and has a total experience of 17 years. Vijayan paid tribute to the US system in an interview with ET — “instant recognition for hard work, high integrity and results. Team work was valued more than individual heroism.”

Ganesh Srivats VP, North America Sales, Tesla Motors

So what’s someone from the fashion world doing in an auto company? Srivats moved to Tesla from Burberry, where he was senior VP of retail for the Americas, in May. Marketing professor Scott Galloway had this to say about the hire in a Bloomberg story. “This makes all the sense in the world… Tesla is not an automobile company, it’s a luxury company.” Srivats has an MA in strategic fashion marketing from London’s University of the Arts.

BANKING & FINANCE

Executives of Indian origin have long made their mark in the finance world, given that the big banks make a point of hiring from the Indian Institutes of Management, wooing new graduates with top packages.

Anu Aiyengar, MD, M&A, JPMorgan Chase & Co.

“You have three strikes against you… How can I hire you? You are the wrong gender, wrong colour and wrong country.” That was the response Aiyengar got at a Wall Street job interview 15 years ago, she told Reuters last year. Having graduated from Smith College with a liberal arts degree and an MBA from Vanderbilt University, she’s one of the stars at JPMorgan Chase, where she’s worked since 1999. Aiyengar, 42, thinks her strong point is the ability to listen, be honest and get people to trust her. She spent four years in American Express before joining JPMorgan.

Viswas Raghavan, Deputy CEO for JPMorgan in Europe, Middle East And Africa and head of corporate and investment banking for the region at JPMorgan Chase

Raghavan, 48, is credited with having taken JP Morgan to the top of the rankings in the fee league tables. A graduate in physics from the University of Bombay, he’s a postgraduate in electronic engineering and computer science from Aston University, Birmingham, UK. He’s been with JP Morgan since 2000, has worked previously with Lehman Brothers and has a total industry experience of about 25 years.

Having been in the job since 2012, Malhotra has led several big deals. Perhaps the most significant of these was the $7.5 billion buyback of shares by Alibaba Holdings from Yahoo besides an active role in the $2.5 billion public offer of the Chinese online giant. He has about three decades of experience in the industry and is an avid golfer.

BoA-ML hired Sinha away from Goldman Sachs in 2012 specifically because of his value as a rainmaker. “He will focus on deepening strategic client relationships and delivering the firm’s vast global resources to our clients,” it had said at the time of his joining. Among the recent deals that Sinha, 49, has been a part of was Tronox’s purchase of FMC’s alkali unit for $1.6 billion.

CONSUMER GOODS

Unilever has long recognised that some of its best managers emerge from the training grounds of India. Its global rivals are taking note, especially GSK Consumer. PepsiCo has also been picking up managers from the country for its international operations.

Mukul Deoras, CMO, Colgate-Palmolive

Deoras, 51, got his start in the business with Hindustan Unilever but has been at Colgate-Palmolive since 2004. Named to this key global role in July, Deoras has been handling several senior roles, including India managing director and president of Asia operations since 2012. Deoras is among the few Indians to have reached this level in the fastmoving consumer goods industry in a non-Unilever company.

Praveen Someshwar, Senior VP & GM, Pepsico

Someshwar was given charge of the broader region after heading the company’s food and beverage businesses in India. He also led the PepsiCo Power of One council to drive collaboration across the food and beverage businesses and held multiple roles in finance and general management. He has a total industry experience of more than 22 years.

Others that the company has elevated include, Deepika Warrier, 45, who was made vice president of the global nutrition group for Asia Middle East and Africa in October 2014.

Zubair Ahmed, Head of Asia Pacific, Middle east and Africa, GSK consumer healthcare

Ahmed, 60, was promoted to a broader role after heading the company’s India business for about eight years. Before that he ran India operations for Gillette, where he spent 14 years, and has also worked at Unilever. At the time of his elevation in March, company president Emma Walmsley said, “Zubair’s business acumen, people management skills and sharp understanding of these markets will help us in our goal to accelerate growth across our emerging markets business.”

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS

Few Indians have made it big in the field, which is dominated by the South Koreans. But one Japanese company is hoping one such executive will help it regain lost ground.

Sunil Nayyar, Director, head of TV business, home entertainment and sound, Sony North America

Sony is looking to reclaim its former dominance of the consumer electronics market, having ceded its leadership position to Samsung. It named Nayyar, 46, to spearhead this challenge in the US--ground zero as it were — in May. Nayyar had been in charge of sales at Sony India since 2006. Before that, he was part of the sales team at Sony Gulf since 1995. Nayyar, who has an MBA from IMT Ghaziabad, is one of the few Indian executives in senior global roles in the consumer electronics industry.

“The US market certainly provides an ideal mix of most developed technology landscape and large scale of operations to encourage professional talent in India to explore this challenge as the next logical step up in their global career development and professional enhancement,” Nayyar told ET.

PHARMA

Indian companies have a big presence in the global generics market but there aren’t too many from the country in the top echelons of multinationals.

Rajiv Mailk, President, Executive Director and member of science and technology committee, Mylan

Malik spent two decades in Ranbaxy, experience that the generic and specialty pharmaceuticals leader obviously values. Apart from having been vice president and head of regulatory affairs at Ranbaxy, Malik, 54, was also head of global development at Sandoz. Mylan is in the midst of a takeover tangle involving Teva and Perrigo and it's not clear how that will be resolved or whether it will affect the management structure. Malik has an MBA from Philadelphia's Drexel University and has been in his current job since 2013.

ADVISORY

Punit Renjen, Global CEO, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu

Renjen, 53, attributes his ascent to the top over three decades at Deloitte to one key skill—he’s terrific at mergers and acquisitions. The boy from Rohtak in Haryana has a master’s in management drom Willamette Universityin the US. He’s been CEO and chairman of the board of Deloitte Consulting since 2009. He became global CEO in June. “Punit’s is not just the archetype of an Indian going to America, working hard, excelling in his chosen field, delivering great results, and finally making to the corner room in the country. His achievement is a continuing pursuit of excellence that has culminated in being acknowledged by his peers in Deloitte member firms across the world as their chosen leader,” says N Venkatram, CEO, Deloitte India.

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After PSU banks, the government is likely to infuse capital in two chronically ill telecom PSUs BSNL and MTNL, and the Union Cabinet is likely to take a decision on 4G spectrum allocation to them by the third week of the current month after DoT places the note before it for consideration.

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